This is an AUTHENTIC HAND SIGNED ORIGINAL RARE Vintage 5"x 7" BW photo of Canadian-born British actress, singer and comedic performer BEATRICE LILLIE. Beatrice Gladys Lillie (29 May 1894 – 20 January 1989), known as
Bea Lillie, was a Canadian-born British actress, singer and comedic performer. She began to perform as a child with her mother and sister. She made her
West End debut in 1914 and soon gained notice in
revues and light comedies, becoming known for her parodies of old-fashioned, flowery performing styles and absurd songs and sketches. She debuted in New York in 1924 and two years later starred in her first film, continuing to perform in both the US and UK. She was associated with revues staged by
André Charlot and works of
Noël Coward and
Cole Porter, and frequently was paired with
Gertrude Lawrence,
Bert Lahr and
Jack Haley. During
World War II, Lillie was an inveterate entertainer of the troops. She won a
Tony Award in 1953 for her revue
An Evening with Beatrice Lillie.
From the late 1920s until the approach of World War II, Lillie repeatedly crossed the Atlantic to perform on both continents. She played at the
London Palladium in 1928.
On stage, she was long associated with the works of
Noël Coward, beginning with
This Year of Grace (1928) and giving the first public performance of "
Mad Dogs and Englishmen" in Coward's
The Third Little Show (1931).
Cole Porter and others wrote songs for her. With
Bobby Clark, she appeared in London and New York in
Walk a Little Faster, in 1935 she starred on Broadway in
At Home Abroad, and with
Bert Lahr she starred in New York in
The Show Is On (1936).
She returned to Broadway in 1939 in
Set to Music and in 1944 in
Seven Lively Arts. The same year, Lillie appeared in the film
On Approval. Other Broadway appearances included
Inside USA (1948),
An Evening with Beatrice Lillie (1952) (Broadway and London),
Ziegfeld Follies of 1957,
Auntie Mame (1958) (Broadway and London) and
High Spirits (1964). Her few other film appearances included a cameo role as a revivalist in
Around the World in 80 Days (1956) and as Mrs. Meers (a white slaver) in
Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), her last film.
After seeing An Evening with Beatrice Lillie, critic Ronald Barker wrote "Other generations may have their Mistinguett and their Marie Lloyd. We have our Beatrice Lillie, and seldom have we seen such a display of perfect talent." Sheridan Morley noted in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography that "Lillie's great talents were the arched eyebrow, the curled lip, the fluttering eyelid, the tilted chin, the ability to suggest, even in apparently innocent material, the possible double entendre".